CZA team express concern over lack of movement space for wildlife animals in zoo

Aurangabad, July 16:

A two-member team of Central Zoo Authority (CZA) has inspected the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation's (AMC) zoo today. The team comprising P. Ajay Kumar and Dr. Govari Malapur spent five long hours on the campus. They inspected the enclosure of each wildlife animal in the zoo and expressed their concern over the non-availability of adequate space for the movement of wildlife animals and the installation of amusement items for them. The team also obtained the details on food, medicine served to the zoo inmates. The CZA experts will be inspecting the Wildlife Safari Park, at Mitmita, on Saturday.

It may be noted that there are around 250 wildlife animals of various species in the zoo, situated on the campus of Siddharth Garden. Three years ago, the CZA had cancelled the license of the zoo when they found the enclosures of each animal were very small. Later on, the civic body submitted an appeal and CZA granted tentative permission on the condition of making recommended changes on priority including shifting the zoo at Mitmita. The CZA had also recommended providing adequate space to each wildlife, repair enclosures, stop the operation of toy train, etc. Of which, the AMC did some works in the past couple of years.

In today's visit the CZA team ensure that their past recommendations had been implemented or not? The inspection started at 10.30 pm and continued till the evening. The CZA experts minutely inspected the enclosure of each wildlife animal, obtained details about the food and medicines served to them, etc. The civic authorities had a tough time answering their queries. The AMC's in-charge director of zoo Shaikh Shahed, Dr B S Naikwade, Sanjay Nandan, and garden superintendent Vijay Patil were present on the occasion.

Selective suggestions

The CZA team visited the rear portion of the zoo to ensure that the stray dogs do not enter the premises. They ordered to close one spot from where they fear the stray dogs could come in the zoo. There are two water ponds in the enclosure of Neelgai. The experts suggested increasing one water pond so that all the Neelgais could drink water at their convenience and avoid rushing at the two ponds only.

The CZA also obtained details on non-vegetarian food served to the tigers, its quantity, and quality as well. They also went through the feed chart and other documents. They also obtained medicine schedules, details of medicines manufacturing companies, etc. They started checking records after 4 pm.